“War on Drugs” plus “War on Terror” coming to a town or city near you!

Protester in a march organized by area ministers in Ferguson MO on Wednesday, August 13th. photo by J.B. Forbes, St. Louis Post Dispatch

Military style weaponry in Ferguson MO after shooting of Michael Brown. Photo by Jeff Roberson/AP

A lot has already been written about the police shooting of unarmed 18 year old Michael Brown in the street of Ferguson Mo, on Saturday, August 9th. And the story isn’t over yet.

Today US Attorney General , Eric Holder will be visiting Ferguson and there are calls by many for the Federal investigation of this crime and for the replacement of the Ferguson Police Chief and the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to indict and then investigate the shooting officer.

There was a nation-wide set of protests honoring many of the unarmed people of color who have been killed by police in many towns and cities where so far almost none of the killers have been brought to justice. Albany was one of the cities taking part in that National Moment of Silence, Thursday at 7:20 PM our time. I’m sure that most of you remember Amadou Dialo (41 shots by NYPD) and Oscar Grant killed in Fruitvale, CA by a BART police officer and one of the most recent deaths of father of six Eric Garner killed in NYC by an illegal choke hold. Over the years there have been many hundreds of unarmed people of color beaten and killed by police.

Today I want to focus on two of the underlying issues for people of color, especially young, black men, and women. Those are the issues of racism and militarism of many of our law enforcement officers. In Saint Louis and its surrounding suburbs there has been a long history of unequal representation and discriminatory justice. Others have written about it better than I ever could.

One sign honoring other unarmed people shot by police during the Thursday August 14th National Moment of Silence, photo from Demotix

In an excellent article written on August 14th by Radley Balko, we have a description of both racism and hyper-military responses by over equipped and vastly undertrained police officers:

Here we have a community that doesn’t see itself reflected in the police force. Ferguson is 67 percent black, while its police force is more than 90 percent white. It’s a community with long-simmering racial tension between police and the people they serve. It has now been well-reported that blacks are significantly over-represented when it comes to stop-and-frisks, traffic stops, and arrests in Ferguson, even though the town’s white residents are more likely to be caught with contraband like drugs or illegal weapons. It isn’t difficult to see why black residents of Ferguson may have already felt as if the police are an outside force that has been imposed upon them, rather than a group of public servants selected from the community to protect them from harm.

We need to note the incredible growth of military arms given and sold to police departments, which began in the 1970’s with the advent of “The War on Drugs” and which increased markedly with giveaway programs using “surplus” military equipment from the “Wars on Terror” that we’ve been engaged in. And although there was a brief attempt to remove this para military equipment from the streets of Ferguson, and to engage the more crowd friendly State Police, it seems to have returned with a vengeance. In a sense you could say that these wars have come home.

Eric Holder US Attorney General made a statement on Thursday, August 14th:

“I am deeply concerned that the deployment of military equipment and vehicles sends a conflicting message.”

What Holder did not mention was the federal government’s role in supplying local police forces with military-grade equipment. The New York Times reports Department of Homeland Security grant money paid for the $360,000 BearCat armored truck on patrol in Ferguson.

Most of the body armor worn by officers responding to the Ferguson protests was also paid for with federal money. We speak to Radley Balko, author of the book, “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces.”

“When we take domestic police officers and we train them like soldiers and we give them military gear and we dress them up like soldiers and we tell them they’re fighting a war — a war on crime or a war on terror — they’re going to start to see themselves as soldiers,” Balko says.

To further demonstrate the consequences of militarizing a police force that has already been trained to fear the community rather than serve them because of decades of training in controlling and confronting people whom they don’t know or understand. Here are some examples of the weapons that were deployed in the early days after the shooting of Michael Brown.

The Federal government is considering opening a broader investigation into how the civil rights of the residents of Ferguson have been violated. That would be a very good thing. Bringing at least a little more meaning to the tragic death of Michael Brown, the lock down of Ferguson, and the fatal shooting of a mentally ill man in nearby Saint Louis county by police yesterday. It would be even better if we broadened the investigation and learned from our past mistakes.

Retired police chief, Norm Stamper who resided over the “Battle of Seattle” in 1999 wrote an article describing what he learned from the massive police actions during that time. He related it to the situation in Ferguson;

“The cop in me should have been overruled by the chief in me,” Stamper said. “I blew it. The effect was to heighten tensions, not de-escalate tension .… A whole lot of others would not have acted as they did if we didn’t act as we did.”

Police killings of youth of color and adults of color is not an isolated incident. Photo by Charlie Riedel/AP

Emanuel Freeman, 19, looks out from his apartment in Ferguson MO as demonstraters raly in the street where Michael Brown was killed. Photo credit: Scott Olson/Getty images. Scott Olson was arrested by Ferguson police during his work as a photojournalist

Protest against racism and the fear that Ferguson police have about young black men. Photo by Michael B. Thomas. AFP/Getty Images

Perhaps out of this tragic incident that took the life of an 18 year old black High School graduate, followed by the inappropriate police response to his community we can finally re-open the discussion that we need to have to decrease racism and militarism within our law enforcement and judicial systems. Let’s hope that happens and things don’t stop after going through the motions, as has happened so many times before.

17 Responses

Excellent piece. The absurd outfitting of local police agencies has been a long time coming, all in the myth of “security”. Boys will play with whatever toys they have, appropriate or not to the situation.

Yes, those “ninjas” can be intimidating, until you need police officers specially trained to handle extraordinary situations. In the case of Ferguson, please explain to me how a community with a population slightly more than half that of Guilderland can field that number of demonstrators/looters who have to work all day, tend to family business in the evening, and still get 8 hours of sleep.

The major violence was the invasion of the neighborhood with military equipment and the use of tear gas, dogs, rubber bullets, smoke grenades and other over the top equipment that was entirely unnecessary for keeping the peace with non-violent protesters.

John Oliver has a very good video about the militarization of the police. [warning there is some profanity in this monologue and in the statements of some of the police.]

To turn around your snide remarks about the number of angry people out protesting in the streets proportional to the population of Ferguson. I’ll ask “What does a town of 21,100 residents need with armored vehicles, sniper rifles, army fatigues, full body armor, and some of the other weapons of war described in the articles?

Below are some facts and ideas from various petition campaigns to change this weapons of war giveaway program:

According to the U.S. General Services Administration, one of the programs that allows the Pentagon to give billions of dollars worth of free weapons of war to local U.S. police “offers Americans peace of mind.”

Have images of a war zone in Ferguson, Missouri, boosted your peace of mind?

Representative Henry “Hank” Johnson will introduce a bill to restrict the flow of surplus war equipment from the Department of Defense to local police departments. He has sent this letter to his colleagues asking for co-sponsors.

Take action: Send an email to your Rep. asking them to co-sponsor this bill.
Does Your Town Police Department Need free MRAP’s and M16’s To Do Its Job?

This is part of Representative Hank Johnson’s letter to congress:

…Recently, a North Carolina town of roughly 16,000 people, acquired some Humvees and Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected vehicles (or MRAPs), which it proudly displayed at a recent car show. Roanoke Rapids got them freefrom the Pentagon, returned from our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Next door, in South Carolina, the Columbia Police Department also received a free MRAP from the Pentagon, which otherwise would have cost Columbia nearly $700,000.

We should be concerned that we are giving away unprecedented amounts of military equipment and creating incentives for local police to use it in order to conduct ordinary law enforcement activities. That is why I will soon introduce “Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act” to reform the program. […]

He then goes on to describe small towns and counties that have received such “gifts” and ends with this conclusion:

Before another small town’s police force gets a $700,000 gift from the Defense Department that it can’t maintain or manage, it behooves us to reign in the Pentagon’s 1033 program and revisit the merits of a militarized America. I hope we can work together on this important issue.

Nice article. We have police running amok in this country. Insane. I thought they were supposed to prevent violence? The only quibble I have with the article is why limit it to blacks? People of all races are being victimized.

Grafmil, what are the “extraordinary circumstances” you raise? An armed insurrection, with armor? At most, any area the size of the Capital District needs one such unit, specially trained and equipped. One.

Tom. It’s good to hear from you.
I agree that we are all being victimized by this style of policing and also by the financial investments in the weapons program which take much needed $$$ from our communities. Particularly from those who need them most (often the most abused by law enforcement).

But the reason for the focus on the killing of Black people is because there have been two shot by police (in Ferguson and in nearby St. Louis) during the past 10 days. And before that, in my experience, there was Eric Garner killed in an illegal chokehold,by an NYPD officer, and the Marine Veteran and former corrections office, Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr. in White Plains, shot to death in his own home as police answered an accidental life-line call, and Rekia Boyd, killed in 2012 by an off duty Chicago police officer (who has been convicted of manslaughter) and Oscar Grant, killed in Oakland CA by a BART policeman. And so many others who were people of color.

I think that the group most often subject to excessive force and often ending up dead in addition to those who are Black or of color are the mentally ill.

In all of those cases I believe that lack of training or too much training to shoot first and ask questions later is partially to blame. The other large factor is fear of the “other.” When police don’t interact every da,y as neighbors and community members, with those in the neighborhoods that they are policing they are often disrespectful of them. In many cases they are taught to fear them.

Elmer, it’s nice to find one area where we agree. I think that your question about extraordinary circumstances is a good one.

It also points out that Grafmil is not taking in the reality of the situation in Ferguson but is instead dealing with his own life experiences and a sort of “war games” [Ninja] mentality.

When he criticizes the people of Ferguson for demonstrating their outrage at the military invasion of their neighborhoods, the imposition of a curfew, and the withholding of information from them for many days; by wondering how they can protest and still “…have to work all day, tend to family business in the evening, and still get 8 hours of sleep.” He demonstrates a distinct lack of empathy or understanding.

In a town that is occupied by militarized police, with businesses that are shut down, with schools that haven’t opened on schedule, with tear gas fumes invading homes and neighborhoods. And with a base unemployment rate of 9%. The people of Ferguson are not going about business as usual. Instead they are experiencing what life is like in a war zone. They are frightened for their children, worried about their education and their well being. They are shocked and horrified at what they are experiencing.

To equate their lives with yours is to indicate that you either don’t know or don’t care what is happening to them during this 12 day period.

Yes, Elmer, I am delighted that you and I have a meeting of the minds on this one. For extraordinary circumstances, one unit of heavy armor and other military style assets is certainly sufficient for a fairly wide region.

There are many things wrong with the militarization of the police, and some of that has been explained here. Certainly the bottom line is that law enforcement…which is predominantly to protect law abiding citizens and,if necessary, bring people suspected of serious crimes in for trial…is a separate type of entity from the military. The latter have the duty to protect the nation and its citizens from major attacks…defensively for the most part. I know a lot of soldiers who don’t even want the job of keeping the peace or, as it often turns out, nation building. My military employed neighbor says he is not truly trained for that.

I remember my consternation when I was with the thousands marching peacefully in Manhattan trying to prevent this nation from the mistake of the Iraq War. Why are all those hundreds of New York Police Officers lined up along the whole route in riot gear and not looking like we are their fellow citizens at all, I thought? We are a peace march. I had to wonder if they didn’t understand English. And such stern and martinet like faces. Well, I went up to several of them anyway when there was a lull in the parade, smiled, and said that I knew they were citizens, too, and on their days off they could join other protests. A couple of them couldn’t help smiling back. Through their face shields.

Finally there is another subject Mickie touched on with regard to mental illness. White, black, Hispanic, Asian, it doesn’t matter. Poorly trained police all over the country all too often kill a person experiencing some kind of psychosis. Parents who sometimes have called the police themselves because their son was saying angry and threatening things or had a weapon(often a stick or knife)are horrified to discover they have unwittingly caused the death of their child because police came in with guns blazing. On the other had, nine times out of ten, a special team of mental health workers or specially trained local police units could sucessfully cordon off the area and spend some time talking the disturbed person down from a state of crisis without anybody getting injured.

In the video clip of the killing of the disturbed man last week in an area of St. LOuis not far from Ferguson, the police arrived on the scene with guns already drawn. A pedestrian has just walked by the victim barely concerned so the life threatening aspect may have been a factor of the police with guns. In any case, the call to the police had said the man was acting erratically. That is a signal to get in the people who are trained for that kind of situation. He did not hurt the store clerk when he shop lifted. He more or less returned the objects. There was plenty of time for the police to approach cautiously, not giving the knife wielding person (if he really did have a knife) the opportunity to get too close while efforts were made to talk him down. Conscious suicide by cop may be harder to prevent than escalation by folks who are just agitated by their hallucinations, but it can work. The reports suggest this was a case of suicide by cop.

Oh, yes, another “crime”. Only a tiny handful of municipalities train their forces or their citizens in how to handle the acting out of severe mental health symptoms.

Hi Linda,
I’m glad that in your comment you highlighted the subject of how the police and other law enforcement officers interact with the mentally ill.

Yesterday I read a really interesting article about how some California counties are participating in a series of training programs where police and autistic young men interact and role play with each other and each group learns about how to interact with the other.

It looks very promising but it takes time and resources and money and needs to be important and prioritized. I found it very moving. it’s a short article that you and other readers and commenters can read or listen to.

You also touched on the very miscalculated deployment of massive weapons of war against originally peaceful protesters in Ferguson. This unwise and unfortunate response has spotlighted the giveaway of surplus military weapons in a way that I hope is followed through on. Not just used as political cover to be forgotten when public attention shifts from this overall SNAFU.

Obama Orders Review Of Transfers Of Military Surplus To Local Police

By Scott Neuman and Steve Mullis, August 23, 2014

President Obama has ordered a review of federal programs that supply local law enforcement agencies with military weapons and equipment after concerns over how the police handled unrest in Ferguson, Mo., in the aftermath of the shooting death of Michael Brown. […]

Because of all the agencies that he will allow to participate in the review, many with a vested interest in continuing it, the outcome of this review is not at all clear. But at least it’s a start in the right direction. If it’s allowed to drag out and wither on the vine then it can be revived as a much needed area where change is needed.

The training of police via interactions with autistically diagnosed people can be an excellent step forward. In years past, I remember local workshops in Albany itself where the public was invited…police, mental health workers, family members, and others…to receive training planned and sometimes delivered by mentally ill people whose symptoms were in remission. In one exercise, trainees wore headphones that played angry, jumbled voices much as a person in some types of psychotic episode might hear. Even a person trying very hard to act sensibly can be distracted and confused by the voices.

It is expensive to invest in this type of community programming on a consistent basis. Too many of our communities prefer short term gain and long term pain. In the end, court costs, police overtime, prison costs, and so forth can outrun the cost of effective prevention and intervention. approaches. Mnnn…I suppose the war machine apparatus given local communities were made and purchased at dollar store prices. Not.

I am surprised at the expressed surprise of politicians and media figures that this kind of stocking up by local police was going on. I read years ago about little out of the way towns getting all kinds of anti-terrorism (supposedly)goodies from Homeland Security. What..were the jihadists going to stop by in these places for a little vacation? And which of the folks we have intercepted and arrested for planning terrorist attacks inside the US were actually apprehended by tanks or futuristic Humvees?

As Mickie has pointed out, however, the vested interests in the Congressional/military/industrial complex will not want to give up their cushy perks that come with supporting this kind of tax dollar waste. As usual, any progress we make in reducing these arms will come from the media and the public keeping up the pressure.

By the way, if taxpayers want to help local communities with Federal money, we can provide local police with not only training but also two way radios for properly trained Neighborhood Watch chapters and also safety vest for the Watch members who walk at night. Body cams for the police help as well.

Linda, it is too easy to simply blame the far away “Congressional/military/industrial complex” for this problem. How about going to Town Hall? These vehicles/weapons aren’t dropped on the doorstep, they are requested.

Make Chief Fife explain why Mayberry needs an MRAP, even at a bargain basement price.

Elmer, there is probably enough blame to go around for the “success” of the distribution of surplus military equipment to small and larger town police forces. But that’s not the point. The point is the use and misuse of such equipment which we seem to agree creates a war like approach of such law enforcement personnel to the communities and community members that they are sworn to serve and protect.

Here’s the link to an excellent article that discusses this issue in a very clear and understandable way.

Martyred in FergusonThank You Michael Brown
by BARBARA NIMRI AZIZ, August 20, 2014

…Why do we view Michael Brown as a martyr? Because his death serves to expose these routine American injustices:– shooting Black unarmed citizens, unreasonable suspicion of Black and Brown people; disrespecting the dead and their families (perhaps the way US troops do in Afghanistan and Iraq). Our authorities exhibit fear and violence rather than empathy and patience. (Perhaps many of these policemen are veterans who shot their way through Iraqi and Afghan villages). Finally this incident confronts us with how shamelessly warlike our community policing is. We’re accustomed to watching such images in movies and in news coverage of foreign wars. […]

Speaking of militarization of US police departments and the breaching of long time legal and policy barriers between war fighting abroad and law enforcement at home. Here’s the latest foray into bringing weapons of war to the skies over your own city or town or rural areas:

Activists Sound Alarm as More Police Departments Consider Using Drones

Anti-war groups call for increased scrutiny over use of drones as law enforcement tools

Nadia Prupis, staff writer

Police departments in the U.S. are increasingly considering the use of drones as a law enforcement tool, even as civil rights groups and media turn up scrutiny of police militarization in the wake of brutal crackdowns on anti-brutality protesters in Ferguson, Missouri and other cities.

The Baltimore Sun reported on Sunday that agencies in several Maryland counties are considering testing drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), for intelligence gathering and “high-risk tactical raids.” That news comes less than a week after anti-war activists in California protested against “mission creep” by the Los Angeles Police Department, which recently acquired several of their own drones. Indiana police departments also recently announced their plan to pursue adding drones to their weapons arsenal.[…]

Mickie and Elmer, pop culture, eh? Well we could start with talking about those block buster programs…I didn’t watch them because I found their propaganda, glorification of torture and uber patriotism offensive. Offensive as in counterproductive and downright dangerous. Since I didn’t watch, you folks will have to correct me…was one called “24”? Was one called “Homeland”?

Please excuse my addiction to somewhat realistic shows with some violence…the “Law and Order” series, “Blue Bloods”, and etc. These do seem to have some redeeming social value as well as high entertainment value for some of us. And even these could clean up their acts some. In certain episodes, police are shown to get away with breaking the rules..all for a good cause. Unauthorized use of force is sometimes condoned.

No, Elmer, I never said their was only one place for us to put pressure in order to reverse some of the glorification of violence and militarization. We can raise boys better so as not to be boys with toys past an age where they are supposed to be men with adult creativity and pastimes.

We can involve our neighbors and fellow voters in asking our police forces to get with the program. White people, immigrants (documented or otherwise), black people and so on all are sometimes subject to abusive police tactics or interactions. I have seen officers push a homeless person up against a car for no good reason. I have also seen officers exhibit tremendous compassion and common sense when dealing with a runaway or homeless person in other situations. Police officers are trainable for the most part. For those who are not, they need to find other work.

Oh, yes, I sort of mentioned parents above. Look at those raising girls with their toys as they put real weapons in the hands of children. I loved my cap pistols and bebe gun. And then I grew up. What a growing up that little girl is going to have remembering she killed a man. The owner of the gun range said thousands of children have shot real guns at his facility including a variety of assault rifles. Trained from a young age that violence is a hoot: what kind of police officers will they make some day?

We can try to redirect our youth to exciting projects and activities that don’t involve so many hours at violent movies and video games. And we can have conversations with them about these highly appealing pastimes.

And, yes, we do need to address the use of tax dollars at the Federal level..whether because some of the armaments are being misused in what should be civil pursuits or because we are stockpiling more weaponry than we will ever need….I find this a big issue because so many of our fellow citizens and politicians have said lately they don’t like big government or wasteful spending. Is this not an issue ready made for their ideals?

To return to the weapons overkill part of the discussion of what happened in the aftermath of the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson: Concerning distribution of surplus militaristic materials to domestic communities since 1989, under the 1033 program, here’s some interesting data.

It’s also interesting that NPR decided to remove a chart featuring the demographic characteristics of the communities receiving the various weapons. I find this shying away from the social and political facts to be telling. They say that they may publish and discuss this part of the equation in the future. Let’s hope so.

In the meanwhile here’s the data on the weapons and also on their costs to the US budget and ultimately to US taxpayers.

MRAPs And Bayonets: What We Know About The Pentagon’s 1033 Program

by Arezou Rezvani, Jessica Pupovac, David Eads and Tyler Fisher
September 02, 2014